marine glazing        

Ships’ windows

A good place to order your new windows is Rhigo in Bergen op Zoom. On this web page we will tell you why.

Rhigo ships’ windows are designed to a well thought out system, and are of an excellent quality, so that the investment is decidedly a one-off occurrence. 

If you look around carefully when at sea, you will notice that increasing numbers of vessels are being fitted with aluminium windows in place of panes in rubber surrounds.

The trend when building from scratch is to fit aluminium windows straight away (or have them fitted) as this has several advantages. For one thing, rubber profiles dry out in the course of time, which causes leakage. Other disadvantages of panes in rubber surrounds are that there is no possibility of ventilation (the windows do not open) and that the rubber always causes marks.

Aluminium windows do not suffer from these disadvantages, a reason why more and more boat owners are choosing them, more so as safety is also improved. A pane in rubber can be stoved in by a heavy wave; a pane in aluminium never.

The best time to install new windows is naturally after the sailing season. Your vessel is laid up for the winter or moored somewhere else, and you are regularly busy with maintenance jobs on your vessel.

Mounting can be done by any do-it-yourselfer. Rhigo has developed a number of different fixing systems for this, suitable for the construction and material of your vessel. Moreover, Rhigo supplies the windows entirely complete with installation materials. Rhigo offers you many options, depending on your wishes and budget.

All profiles are made of seaworthy aluminium and can be anodised or else coated in any imaginable RAL colour.

Sizes and angles Rhigo does not keep any standard sizes and styles in stock. All windows are specially made to measure for you. This means a delivery time of several weeks. If you would like your windows to have rounded corners, you can choose from a wide range of diameters at Rhigo; we make rounded corners from 70 to 125 mm radius (or put another way with curves of from 140 to 250 mm diameter). It is advisable to ensure that the rounded corner in each window opening has the same radius (that saves you money…). If the ship has opening windows, the smallest radius is then not 70 but 90 mm (i.e. a circle of 180 mm diameter). Special deck and wall curves can be supplied in so far as this is possible with toughened glass. Finally, windows with sharp corners are also among the possibilities. These windows are somewhat more expensive than those with rounded corners.

Window finishing All Rhigo windows are perfectly finished. To start with, all panes are mounted in the aluminium in grey EPDM rubber. The colour is similar to that of the aluminium and is not noticeable, as black rubber would be. The handgrips of the sliding windows are self-locking. If necessary a stylish lock can be supplied, with which you can securely lock the windows (break-in insurance). The opening windows are fitted with laser-cut stainless steel struts. All the window furniture is attached with hidden screws. No sharp screw heads, and it is not possible to unscrew the hinges from outside (break-in prevention). And here also grey EPDM rubber that is not noticeable. And in our slide-down windows the channels are indeed also grey.

The most important advantages of RHIGO windows one after the other:

Aluminium Our windows are made of aluminium, a durable and low-maintenance material with a smooth surface structure that dirt does not stick to and that is easy to clean.

Window furniture A characteristic of our windows is that all the window furniture on our opening windows is mounted with hidden screws. Burglars thus cannot unscrew the hinges of our windows. Thus no visible screws on the outside or inside. At the same time all plastic components used are manufactured in a grey colour that resembles the colour of aluminium, so that they are not noticeably present on the window.

Fixing materials and gasket All our windows are supplied complete with a pre-mounted gasket and fixing and mounting material (except for screw fixing). You can therefore fix the windows directly on board without having to make use of the filler gun, and later simply remove them out of the wall if that should be necessary, for example for painting works.

RHIGO windows are despite all these advantages affordable too.